they were riding in different cars. it s not clear to me that that was done at the direction of police. rather, just some good sensible virginians who looked around and said there s probably another car on this train they d rather ride in. i absolutely want to be no part of this. garrett, thank you. jeff bennett, can you talk us through what you ve seen from your vantage point? and also obviously after this happened in charlottesville, just one year a go, all the attention turned to president trump and his really response or lack thereof to what we had seen in the streets of charlottesville. how are things different this year? kasie, you re 100% right. look, jason kessler, the organizer behind unite the right, the rally last year and this sequel rally, initially wanted to hold the follow-up in charlottesville. but he was denied a permit there the so he turned his attention to washington, d.c. and the national park service approved his permit for what he called a white civil right
and the fact that he still can t do that, that to me is the lesson that every american should take from what we see this weekend. mark morial, to michael steele s point, the president is not out front leading on this tonight. the rally by the unite the right group is an absolute flop, a failure, a poor showing. 30 people and all of this anticipation, all of this mobilization, all of the public resources spent by the city of washington and the federal government and the taxpayers for 30 people to show up. but secondly, this was an opportunity for the president to make a forceful unequivocal statement. go look at mitt romney s statement. look at ivanka trump s statement. those statements are more on mark of the type of statement we d like to see the president make. this is a moral moment. this is a moment where we expect the president to speak unequivocally. he seems to not be able to really get to the point where he
the obvious down side is that i m not with you. i always miss you when we re not together. i know you wanted to be there. true or false, don lemon in fancy hat walks meghan markle down the aisle? true or false? that s false. but don lemon will be with us tomorrow for part of the royal coverage. that part s true. i knew i had it almost right. i ll talk to you in a little bit. it s close. all right. we have a lot to cover. let s get after it. cnn s abby phillip live at the white house. what do you know? reporter: good morning, chris. good morning from a rainy washington, d.c. here. for several weeks the president s allies in the house have been asking for more information about this russia investigation, but the fbi said disclosing more information could compromise a confidential source. now we are learning new information about what could be a critical flashpoint between the president and the justice
agreement. we ll be pitching and i feel confident about our chances. bill: thank you, kevin corke leading our coverage from a rainy washington, d.c. shannon: we re also awaiting a live news conference from house speaker paul ryan. we believe he s said the to unveil new details in the gop s plan to replace obamacare. and ryan was at the white house late last night reportedly trying to keep the repeal efforts alive. vice president pence has been trying to shepherd a deal and is confident it is going to happen. clearly a few weeks back congress wasn t quite ready. we ve made good progress and i ve seen good faith on all sides. there are good faith discussions underway and the president and i are encouraged. not that it will get done in an particular period of time but it s going to get done. shannon: well, peter doocy is
certainly with ted cruz in this meeting, that part of the conversation will likely remain a heated one. clearly he continues to be dug in. but i do think that the overall tone has shifted here in washington. but, oh, to be a fly on the wall in the white house right now, thomas. nbc s kristen welker, nbc s mark murray. thanks to both of you. we re going to be monitoring events at the white house as those senate republicans prep for that meeting with president obama. again, that s happening as we speak, as those buses were pulling up dropping off senators in rainy washington, d.c. joining me right now maryland congressman and house democratic whip, steny hoyer. congressman, it s great to have you here. first of all, you just came out of a meeting with your colleagues in the house. yesterday your colleague tweeted this photo of you and nancy pelosi standing in the rain. it s been raining in d.c. for a couple of days now. are the votes there to pass a short-term deal? i think the votes